Vacation: An Interactive Story
by purplestarz2006
Summary: Back From Hiatus! Our favorite Bohemians decide to escape the NY heat by visiting some of the country's greatest waterparks, which you, the reader, can help choose!
1. Chapter 1

Vacation

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter One: The Cheesy Setup Chapter

"What exactly are you doing?" Mark asked as he slowly walked from his bedroom to find Roger sitting in the kitchen fiddling with a piece of paper.

"I'm trying to make a fan." Roger replied "It's so hot in here."

"You know, in December we're going to be begging for this." Mark said as he plopped himself down on the couch. He grabbed the remote off of the makeshift coffee table and turned on the aging television, blindly surfing the channels. "Is Mimi awake yet?" he asked, his gaze still fixated on the screen.

"Yeah, she was up before all of us. She left us a note somewhere….something about going out to buy food or something." Roger began scrambling around the kitchen, looking for the note.

Mark sighed and got up off the couch. He picked up the piece of paper that was halfway turned into a fan and unfolded it, then held it up. "Um, Roger, would this be the note?"

"Oh, yeah. That's it. Now give it back to me, I need to finish my fan." Mark tossed the fan back at Roger and was making his way back to the couch when there was a sharp knock at the door, followed by a loud voice.

"Mark! I know you're home; you have no life! Open the door!"

"Is it just me, or is Maureen getting up earlier now?" Roger asked as Mark made his way to the door.

"Hey, Maureen. Hey, Joanne. How's it going?" Mark said when he saw Joanne standing behind Maureen.

Maureen wasted no time making herself at home, flinging herself down onto the couch and once again turning on the television. "You guys need to get yourselves a fan or something. It's boiling in here" she observed as she scanned the channels as Mark had done only minutes before.

"I'm working on it!" Roger exclaimed from his place in the kitchen.

"Hey, Joanne, what are you doing here? I thought you were the one with the job?' Mark asked. It was true, since Mark had given up Buzzline Joanne was the only one of the group left with any real employment. Sure, Mimi still made some money, but since her near death experience she had been scaling back her hours at the Cat Scratch more and more, and searching for a less risky job. Roger was still plugging away with that guitar, but not much income was coming from it. Maureen was…well, being Maureen. There really was no other term for how she filled her days. She claimed she was looking for work, but so far her efforts had not been very successful. And Collins was still living off the Food Emporium ATM.

"It's my vacation time. I don't usually take it, but it's been so hectic lately that I just needed to get away."

"And the loft qualifies as "away" to you?" Roger asked, not looking up from his fan.

"Well, it's away from the office. And what are you doing to that paper?" Joanne noticed Roger's project for the first time.

"It's a fan! Believe me, once I finish this thing you're all going to be begging me…"

"…to go out an buy an air conditioner. We know. Anyway, Roger's got a point, Pookie. You've got this vacation time, we should go somewhere more vacation-y."

Just then, Collins and Mimi came in. Mimi was carrying two bags from the grocery store, as was Collins. "Hey, guys!" Collins said as he placed the bags on the counter. "Did you know it was 100 degrees out there?"

"Really? We haven't noticed, we've been having snowball fights in here." Mark replied.

"Man, heat makes you cranky. I swear, it's days like this that make me wish we all had better jobs. Then maybe we could afford a fan."

"I'm working as fast as I can, people!" Mimi turned around at Roger's response to her statement, then looked back at Mark for an explanation.

"He's making us a paper fan that's going to save the world." Mark said, not taking his eyes off the tv.

"Hey, I know! Let's go to a waterpark!"

Everyone slowly turned or looked up to face Maureen, even Roger. "What? Maureen, what are you talking about?" Joanne asked.

"For our vacation, silly! You know, the one we were just talking about before Mark had to explain Roger and the super-fan again."

"Maureen, that is…"

"The best idea ever! Come on, let's go now!" Collins clapped his hands together in excitement.

"See? Someone agrees with me. Come on, pookie. It'll be fun. We'll all go, it will be like a fun road trip."

Joanne threw her hands up in the air. "Fine. Looks like we're going to a waterpark, everyone."

"Hey, I got an idea!" Roger said, suddenly forgetting about his fan.

"Oh, great. Now Roger's contributing to the plan, this can only make it better" replied Mark sarcastically.

"Shut up, cranky boy. Anyway, how about instead of just going to one water park, we go to a whole bunch? You know, we make a real vacation out of it."

"Now you're talking!" Collins exclaimed.

Everyone started talking at once, trying to decide where to go or what hotels to stay at. They all left the loft for Joanne's place, to begin mapping out their trip. Joanne owned an air conditioner.

Three days later, the group was congregating outside Joanne's building. Not only was Joanne the only one in the group with a job and air conditioning, she was also the only one with a car. Granted, it was her company car, but it was a car nonetheless. It was designed to only hold 5 people, 6 at the most, so the drive for all 7 of them would be quite cozy.

Mark and Collins were busy loading luggage into the trunk and onto the roof of the car. Mimi was complimenting Maureen on her new sunglasses, and Joanne was going over the route of their trip again. Roger was sitting on the curb, still struggling with his paper fan.

"God, Roger, you've mangled that piece of paper enough. It's been three days!" Maureen exclaimed as the group began to pile into the car. Mark was up front with Joanne, all the others were in the back.

"I will make a fan, Maureen! And it will be the best fan you ever saw. And then they will patent it, and I will be rich, and I'm not taking you for a ride in my private jet!"

"Sure, Roger." Mimi laughed as she closed the car door. The vacation had officially begun.

A.N. **Important **Ok, so here's the deal. This is my first published Rent fic, but more importantly this is what I'm dubbing an interactive fic. Here's how to participate: Submit a review with the following information:

_Your favorite amusement/water park_

_Where it is (at least what state)_

_Any special rides, etc that you would like to see our Bohemian friends experience_

_Optional: If you know, what's the surrounding town like? Is there a beach? A boardwalk? A mall?_

I will then use this information to write one chapter of the story for each park.


	2. Seabreeze: Rochester, NY

Vacation

Chapter 2: Seabreeze (Rochester, NY)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A.N. #1: Ok, so this story went on a kind of "summer hiatus". I didn't plan it that way…I just moved into college about a week ago so this past summer was really crazy for me, and didn't leave much writing time. Strangely enough, I seem to have more time for it now that I'm here. So I figured, this story can be a way to keep summer going in our minds.

A.N. #2. Thanks for the responses! Our first stop will be the Seabreeze Amusement Park in Rochester, NY, (ironically, the hometown of Taye Diggs, whose character is the only living one not featured in this story). All other suggestions will be included in future chapters, when they get to other state/areas of the country.

The next day, after a seven hour car trip and a very cramped night at the Rochester, NY Holiday Inn, the group arrived at their first stop.

"…Seabreeze, huh? I've never heard of this place." Roger observed as the six of them headed for the entrance.

"Oh, dear. Now we have to leave because Roger doesn't know the entire history of the park." Mark said.

"Ok, ok, let's just get inside and get Mark into some water, please!" Mimi grabbed Roger by the arm and stormed ahead of the rest of the group, before Roger had a chance to respond to Mark's heat-induced cranky sarcasm.

After purchasing their tickets and going through the security lines, held up only by Maureen and her jewelry, they arrived at what was apparently dubbed the "Midway of Fun".

"Well, at least they're direct. Come on, let's go find the water…"

"Pookie! Look!"

Joanne looked up from her map of the park to see Maureen making a beeline for one of the "skill games". Mark reached into his bag and pulled out his camera.

"And not five minutes after entering Seabreeze, Maureen has already found a way waste what little money we have…" Mark stopped his narration when he heard Mimi clear her throat behind him. He turned to face her. "Can I help you?"

"You brought your camera to an amusement park?" Mimi asked, still holding onto Roger's arm.

"Of course I did! Someone has to record this monumental occasion." Mark replied, defensively.

"What occasion? We just got…" Roger was interrupted by Maureen, back from her round of water gun racing with a new addition in tow-a four foot high stuffed monkey.

"Someone actually winning one of those games. I think that's pretty monumental, don't you?"

The others shook their heads and headed farther into the park. It was very crowded, and the combination of the crowds and the six of them walking with their heads buried in the park maps made for some very interesting encounters with the other patrons. Eventually Roger, who for some reason was leading the group, stopped abruptly, throwing his hands in the air and shouting "I give up!"

The rest of the group let out a collective sigh, and Mimi tried to play the sympathetic girlfriend role, a hard role to play when she was just as anxious to get to the waterpark as everyone else. "You give up on what, baby?" she asked, trying to hide her impatience.

"This map! It's completely useless. I think they print these things just to confuse us so we never find what we're looking for, then have to come back and pay again." Roger exclaimed, throwing the map on the ground.

"Why don't you turn the map into a fan?" joked Maureen.

Her comment went unnoticed as Roger continued to rant about the map. "From now on, no more maps. We will be traveling by instinct and instinct alone. Come on, everyone. The waterpark is this way, I know it."

As the group began to move, Mark turned on his camera and turned his head to get a shot of the crowd, and doing so caught sight of a blue sign behind him that indicated, in very clear lettering, that he waterpark was in the opposite direction than the one Roger was moving in. He turned the camera on himself.

"We are now following Roger's instinct, which is leading us in the opposite direction of the waterpark…" His commentary was cut short when he noticed the group was moving farther and farther away. He quickly turned the camera off and rushed to catch up with them, debating whether or not to inform Roger of his error. He wanted to get to the waterpark as much as the rest of them, but capturing Roger's reaction when he found out on his own was very tempting as well.

Twenty minutes later, there was no sign of the waterpark anywhere. Now, though, not only did Mark understand why, but Collins did as well. Collins had noticed another sign pointing in the true direction of the waterpark as they walked, although Roger was still ranting about the "evils of the map" and refused to even acknowledge anyone else speaking.

Suddenly, the group came to another abrupt stop, this time because of Maureen. "Pookie, look!" she said, grabbing Joanne's arm. She pointed to the large carousel they were passing. "Can we ride it, guys? We haven't done anything but walk and listen to Roger complain all day."

Joanne signed. "Yeah, I don't see why not. The line isn't that long, anyway."

Then Roger spoke up. "People, the reason the line isn't long is because all the rest of the people are in the waterpark, where we should be. We cannot deviate from our goal…"

"Oh, my God Roger, please! Enough with this! You've already gotten us lost with your instinct. Now are you riding this with us or not?"

Roger thought for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, sure. If everyone else is going…"

"Um, I'd really prefer not. I'll just hang out on that bench." Mark said.

"Fine. The you get to hold Mr. Bananas here while we ride." Maureen place her giant monkey on Mark's shoulders, then followed the rest of the group to get in line. Mark carried the monkey over to the closest bench, then sat down and turned on his camera and began to film.

After about twenty minutes, when the rest of the group had actually made it onto the ride, a young woman about Mark's age sat on the bench next to him. She watched him film the ride for awhile, then asked, "So, which one is yours?"

Mark looked at her strangely for a moment, unsure of what she meant. "Oh, you mean who am I filming? Well, let's see….that black guy swinging from the horse pole…that one's mine. And the lesbians making out in the weird booth thing…those are mine, too. Oh, and see that Latina girl that's almost giving that guy a lap dance? They're both mine."

Mark turned back to the woman, only to find that she had left. "Some people just don't get non-traditional families" he said to himself.

When the ride was over, they resumed their quest for a waterpark. They wandered for three hours, pausing only for the occasional snack or shopping excursion in the gift shop. It amazed Mark, as well as Collins and Roger, and even Joanne, that Maureen and Mimi were just as thrilled at the prospect of buying tacky amusement park souvenirs as they were at going shopping back in New York.

Finally, having walked in a complete circle around the entire park, the group reached the entrance to the waterpark. After passing through the changing rooms and lockers, they were finally able to do what they had been dreaming of all day.

They dragged Mark to the wave pool and shoved him in.

With Mark now fully hydrated, the rest of the afternoon went wonderfully. Roger and Collins competed over who could go down the biggest waterslide. Maureen, Mimi, and Joanne were in and out of the wave pool all afternoon. And Mark sat wrapped up in a towel, complaining that he had gotten water up his nose and filming the entire scene.

Around six-thirty, the air started to cool and the group decided to bid farewell to Seabreeze. As they made their way back towards the exit, Roger caught a glimpse of a blue sign pointing towards the waterpark.

"Too bad we didn't see these before, huh?" he remarked as they continued towards the parking lot. Mark and Collins looked to each other and snickered.

"Yeah, Roger. But at least we had your instinct." Collins said.

A.N. And so our Bohemian friends drive off into the sunset. Let's see where they end up next….


End file.
